Chacos and Chicos

Every year, when the sun starts to stay warm and I start wearing less sweaters and more t-shirts and start replacing my winter footwear (boots...I love them) with my summer footwear. (Yes, I mostly only wear four different shoes, two different kinds of boots, a pair of knock-off converse, and my chacos...and regardless of what the more fashionable may say, these shoes do go with everything.)

When I pull my chacos from the bottom of the shoe basket they always feel a little stiff. I have to work with the straps for a few days or weeks to get them back to the place where I can slip them on without thinking about it. But I do it every year, because these shoes take me everywhere and more so they remind me of...you guessed it, camp.

This summer as I came down to camp I spent the first few days catching up with people that I have known before, some of them for years, and one night as I lay in bed I got to thinking that relationships are like chacos.

Okay, I know that is a terrible metaphor, feel free to roll your eyes, I am. Have we moved past it? Good, continuing on.

When I see someone that I have a friendship with but I have not been around for a while there is a certain adjustment period that takes place.

I have to get back into the groove of the friendship, and catch up with all the change and growth that has happened. I have to find the "stiff" parts of our relationship and work on them until they are back to being carefree as they once were.

I love this process. I think working at camp has given me opportunity to grow an appreciation of the absence of relationships. That old adage, "Absence makes the heart grows fonder is true." Not just because you suddenly see what matters when it's missing, but because absence brings the opportunity for reconnection. When you go 6 months or a year or two without seeing someone you are forced to look and reconnect with that person. To see them in the light of all the growth and change that both of you have gone through.

There is a certain beauty in the idea and an excitement in the process. I am here at camp working back into my relationships with past staff (some take more work than others) and everyday my task gets easier. More so, everyday, I get to work on the formation of new relationships that I will leave and be united with later on and the process can expand and start over again.

I am thankful for absence, because of the opportunity to grow. Not just myself, but my relationships.

Sidebar: Google chrome is convinced that "chacos" is not a real word. The squiggly red lines are bothering me.

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